Activists from Around Globe Meet, Say No to Imperialism

Eindhoven, Netherlands - Activists from across the globe met here Nov. 10-14 for the Second International Conference of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS). Organized around the theme, “Advance the people’s solidarity and struggle for liberation and democracy against imperialist plunder and war,” the conference drew more than 200 delegates and supporters from 30 countries in Asia, Europe and North America. U.S.-based organizations represented included the Colombia Action Network.

Activists at the ILPS conference discussed the deepening crisis of imperialism and growing global resistance, reviewed their actions over the past three years and planned for continued coordinated struggles.

The conference opened with a keynote speech by Professor Jose Maria Sison, the ILPS General Consultant, who focused his attacks on the United States and the war on Iraq. Sison said, “The U.S. has used 911 as the pretext for stepping up military production, supposedly for reviving the sick U.S. economy and waging a permanent ‘war on terror,’” and, “Since 911 the U.S. has perpetrated colossal acts of terrorism far more than what it accuses the Al Qaida of committing. What is the killing of 2800 people at the twin towers in New York in comparison to the more than 100,000 Iraqi people that the U.S. has massacred in the course of its invasion and occupation of Iraq, and to the millions more of people being brutalized, impoverished and made vulnerable to death and disease by the continuing U.S. military offensives that destroy private homes, communities and the social infrastructure? Let us not forget that the current barbarities of the U.S. have come on top of twelve years of sanctions that have killed 1.5 million Iraqis, including 750,000 children.”

Sison also encouraged the world to fight back against the U.S.’s push for global domination, “More than ever, the proletariat and peoples of the world must unite against U.S. imperialism as the number one exploiter and terrorist in the world and against all imperialism and all reaction…Armed revolution for national and social liberation is being carried out on a wide scale, in Iraq, Palestine, Turkey, Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Philippines, Colombia and other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It is the most important form of struggle because it directly responds to the question of political power…The forces and people in the Iraqi broad united front against imperialism contribute in a big way to the overall development of the anti-imperialist movement on a global scale. As the U.S. is bogged down for a long while in Iraq, the anti-imperialist struggles of the people can grow in strength and advance in so many other countries by taking advantage of the overextension and actual weakness of U.S. imperialism.”

At the ILPS conference, 18 concerns were the focus for the workshops. These workshops developed a collective analysis as to how imperialism affects national liberation movements, women, workers and other issues and sectors of society. Many activists used the conference to plan coordinated actions and they will meet again in three years.